The Draft Curriculum- What it means for Year 2

Following on from the last post, here is a summary of what the draft curriculum proposes for Y2. This is one of the years to see the most change. Two of the most well-established units, ‘Forces and Motion’ and ‘Using Electricity’ have seen major changes and abandonment, respectively.

What you can see, across the whole curriculum, but especially here, is an attempt to simplify the titles of units. This is seen at all levels, from the division of all strands into ‘Biology’, ‘Chemistry’ and ‘Physics’, down to individual unit titles. Instead of QCA unit titles like ‘Plants and Animals in their Local Environments’, we now have ‘Plants’, ‘Animals, including humans’ and ‘Habitats’.

Speaking of those strands, in Y2, you will notice a big focus on Biology. The elevation of habitats to an autonomous unit will give lots of opportunities for engaging learning and out-of-classroom opportunities. This is always one of the most interesting topics for the children, so the increased focus will be welcomed. (We’ll be providing plenty of resources to go with this and help you get the most out of habitats).

As Biology dominates, the clear loser in Y2 is Physics. The ‘Using Electricity’ module is now gone entirely, with nothing to replace it. The simplification of topic titles has had a large impact on the former ‘Forces and Motion’ unit, now rechristened a plaintive ‘Movement’. Incredibly enough, all mention of the word ‘forces’, or even reference to pushes and pulls are airbrushed from the content. Of course, teachers can still mention these in context, but it does seem one of the more curious omissions in the entire curriculum.

But I digress. This post isn’t here to debate the perceived rights and wrongs, just to make clearer what has actually changed. As yesterday, here is a grid showing the Year 2 curriculum changes.

In the coming week, we’ll deal with what the new curriculum has in store for KS2. Watch this space!